The Extremes of Florida

It’s not unusual for me to get into a disagreement with somebody on the subject of affluence. I recall in college during freshman year having a debate with my friend Debbie about the definition of affluence. Debbie was one of 10 children in a family headed by an Air Force Chief Master Sergeant, and as we sat there as freshman at an elite Ivy League school, I argued that she came from an affluent family. She could not have disagreed more. She simply would not buy into the argument that I tried to make that even though there were many people in the country wealthier than her family, she was still living a solid middle class lifestyle, and wanted for very little. For my part, I was the son of a UN diplomat who was senior enough to qualify for me to get a UN scholarship to go to college, but I knew that my mother spent most of her income supporting her modest lifestyle in Rome and her three children who were off in college. Debbie‘s father would retire with a military pension and my mother would retire with a UN pension. I doubt either would leave a significant estate for their children, and yet I still maintained, and would to this day, that we both came from an affluent background. We were both members of a privileged class and perhaps our privilege didn’t get denominated in millions of dollars, but it did create sensibilities and expectations which would most appropriately be defined as affluent. By the way, today, 55 years later, both Debbie and I live at least as well if not better than our parents did in their retirement and we both pretty much want for nothing. I feel comfortable in my assessment that we were then and are now, affluent.

But something has changed now. Much has been written about the trends in wealth distribution, and the fact that the past 45 years have seen a tilting of the affluence scale. I won’t bother to repeat all of the wealth, concentration, statistics that we all see every day and shake our heads about. Suffice it to say that fewer people today who are sitting in their freshman class at college would argue that they come from affluence and that they were likely to spend their lives living as affluent people. We all know the story of the diminishing middle class in America, but what many may not realize is that there has also been a tremendous narrowing of the affluent class in America. In some ways, America has changed over the last 50 years from a country that took pride in having a abroad middle class to a country that looks and acts more like the emerging countries of the world where wealth is so highly concentrated in a few privileged people while the rest of the population struggles with survival. My liberal leanings make this view unexceptional to most of you, but this trip that I am on to what I consider to be the belly of the new American beast (Florida), has given me new ammunition for my arguments.

Yesterday we started our day in the lovely confines of Key West, which seemed like an appropriate place to begin this exploration of modern wealth in America. The history of Key West is of a town that has at various times in its history been the wealthiest city in America (1820-1850) and then one of the poorest cities in America (1930’s), with more than half of the city on federal relief. Today, Key West is certainly part of the affluent subculture of America in its own small way, but it’s location on the otherwise modest and working class Florida Keys maintains this historic contrast. Along the length of the 125 miles of the Florida Keys what you see is a high degree of impermanence and transience. This most probably reflects the shifting sands, tides and hurricane winds that buffet this archipelago. Heading north, you first pass through Homestead, which you will remember as the city devastated and flattened by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. We stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, which by the standards of Homestead was probably upscale.

Then we headed north past Miami and Boca Raton, eventually landing us near Palm Beach, which is clearly the nucleus of affluence in America, especially thanks to Donald Trump and his presence at Mar-a-Lago. We made an unexpected stop to visit our friends Terry and Paula at their home in Palm Beach Gardens. I’m sure I’m not giving it it’s due, but Palm Beach Gardens strikes me as an inland town with gated community developments built on swamp land and protected from the outside world with high walls and ample guards. I never thought our good friends Terry and Paula would find happiness in such a place when they decided to build four years ago and it seems my prediction was correct and that they are now anxious to sell their lovely new home and escape to our wonderful side of the country in California. The biggest problem with their house sale seems to be that their lovely and tastefully modern 3000 square-foot home is simply too small to interest the people that want to live in this 10,000 square foot home community where one’s status is denominated in some combination of square footage and the lowness of your golf handicap.

I cannot tell you how shocked and appalled we were driving through their development, passing one McMansion after another, set cheek to jowl like Beverly Hills. We passed one house that was so grand that we were sure it was the community clubhouse only to discover that it was a single-family home which is on the market for $45 million. The only home we saw in this development that we would even consider comfortable to live in was Terry and Paula‘s beautiful little bungalow. The rest were ostentatious and unnecessarily vulgar displays of wealth that spoke to the ethical problems we most suffer from in America.

We are currently staying with our friends, Barbara and Frank in a spare condo that they keep in their development on the lovely manatee-inhabited waterways of Stuart. Frank and Barbara have their own 2000 ft.² two bedroom two bath condo next door to this 2000 ft.² two bedroom two bath condo that they keep for family and guests. Each of these condos in this pleasant and modest development with its carport and friendly clubhouse and simple shared amenities is worth about $500,000. Nobody that I grew up with that I would consider affluent would be uncomfortable in this pleasant development and quite frankly nobody would need more than what this development offers. The town of Stuart, which we drove through last night, seems like an all-American city with ice cream parlors a Theatre and nice restaurants. It looks to be a wonderful place to retire and live the good life that America has always promised those who aspire to its lifestyle.

I didn’t come to Florida to explore the extremes of Florida wealth but it’s hard to ignore the contrasts we’ve seen between Key West, Homestead, Palm Beach Gardens, and now Stuart. It has reminded me about my thoughts about affluence in America and makes me wonder what has become of us for any of us to feel the need to accumulate more material wealth and status than one could find here in this lovely waterside development in Stuart. I’m still not a fan of Florida, but if I had to live in Florida, I would be sure to find a place like this development in Stuart to call home because my soul could not abide by the excess of affluence that way too many of my peers have sought and achieved in their false quest for the American dream.